On the 7th we woke up feeling rather worse for ware after our night out at Soho, Shanghai but were keen to get on our next night train, sleep, then see the next city on our trip. This would have been made a whole lot less stressful if my watch hadn't decided to slow down randomly for the only 2 hours I needed it in action. We had to check out by 12 and at 10 Mairi and I decided to have a bit more of a nap and then to get up and pack. I kept checking my watch (whi...

Don't worry, I haven't surccumbed to bird flu, panic not, despite the fact that I am in Shanghai at the height of bird flu panic time :) On the 4th we spent the day cafe hopping and escaping the chaos of grave sweeping day in china where everyone has 3 days holiday to pay respects to their ancestors and burn paper versions of their favourite things so their dead relatives will receive them..strange I know! Beijing was madness with families using the holiday to ...

Nehow :) no idea how you write that in English but it sounds like that (hello in Chinese). Have a stinking cold (serves me right for escaping winter) and a temperature but have had a lovely but exhausting day all the same topped up by the all-powerful Anadin!! Today we set off at 8:30 on a bus for the temple of heaven, as usual we got stared at a lot on the way..everywhere we go we get stared at as basically all the other tourists are Chinese tourists and so it'...

Today was brilliant. And I mean brilliant..I just LOVE China! We got up at 6:20 (my roommate Mairi and I decided we'd much rather stay in bed and look at pictures if the Great Wall but common sense won in the end) and met the others at 7 in the lobby. We were lucky in that a bus had been booked for us (we're taking public transport for the entire trip as there are only 8 of us) and so settled in for a good snooze on the way to the wall. Also it was freezing! Afte...

Hellooo from China!! Gonna be very strange writing this blog by myself but I will try and keep you updated as much as possible! China is so exciting and Beijing is eerily similar to Moscow! Arriving yesterday evening it was the first thing that hit me with loads of modern grey communist buildings and not many old buildings insight despite it being such an ancient city. Also hardly anyone speaks English which I am finding very odd after being in tourism-orientat...